Monday, January 12, 2009

A Primer on Martian Military Tactics

Your Martians must deal with the trained volleys of earth foot soldiers, their machineguns, and their incredibly powerful artillery, not to mention the appearance of the metal clad steam powered monstrosities. When possible you are upgrading your weaponry and adopting some of the impressive earth tactics (such as mass volleys) but as a whole you are still fighting with outdated equipment and tactics.

To offset the overwhelming firepower of the invaders you have numbers, a well trained, if under-equipped, army and some unique tactics that when used properly have proven quite effective against the earth forces. Martian leaders have also taken to the art of diplomacy and have managed to use the greed of the different earth nations to acquire equipment, trainers, and even occasional direct military support.

Your first and foremost tactic is to avoid earth firepower at all costs. The range of their rifles and machineguns is two to three times most of yours and they are far more accurate. Keep your troops under cover!! Do not leave your units stationary in the open and / or in light cover as they will be cut to pieces. Try and keep them out of sight until the enemy is within range or you decide to attack.

Once you decide to attack do not hesitate. Form columns and if at all possible concentrate your legion forces. Your shield gunners offer a high level of protection to your troops and if you can close your choppers will cut through the most determined defense. Use your legion shooters as skirmish or flank troops to support the attack. Try to avoid attacking piecemeal as that will allow they earth troops to concentrate their firepower on one unit at a time. You will never survive.

Use your fast moving Hill Martian allies to try and force the flanks of the enemy line and better yet support a legionary assault. Their speed might also allow them to close-assault the enemy ironclads or as a follow up to a successful assault by your legions. Be careful as they are not always the most dependable of troops.

If you are in a defensive position there is a good chance that your artillery will be your single biggest asset. While not as accurate as the Earth weapons you have the advantage of numbers and can sometimes lay down a wall of firepower with your guns alone.

Though they are rare you occasionally will have a unit of “banded” shooters. These weapons load slowly and fire slowly but have a range that exceeds the earthen rifle equipped troops by 20%. They can be the perfect choice to “pester” dug in earthen units.

Should you have a unit of flying High Martians to command you can be sure that the enemy will move very cautiously. Use them judiciously. Always keep them in a position to attack but never attack unless the target is too good to resist. Better yet use them to support an existing planned assault. The combination of being attacked from more than one side at a time will quickly crush any opponent. You can also use them to threaten enemy supply or artillery units. This will force the enemy to defend these targets leaving fewer units to go on the offense.

Earthmen fear your Gashant mounted cavalry and especially your lancers. Like your High Martian allies their numbers are limited so use them wisely. They are deadly troops, are hard to kill with rifle fire but are only effective in the attack.

As time goes by your troops will possibly have more advanced technology to use and perhaps your own inventors might come up with ways to add new items to support your firepower.

In conclusion, keep your troops under cover or hidden until the time is right. Use your mobile troops to force the enemy to defend its flanks and rear and then to support your frontal assaults. These tactics have been proven to have a high level of success against the new foe from earth.

About Me

I'm a high school history and journalism teacher, a career I've loved and continued to enjoy. Aside from my family I have several passions-miniature wargaming, movies, books and music. I'm also a died in the wool Mariners fan and baseball lover.